


the pretty white ships that I am dreaming of

by bessemerprocess



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Boats and Ships, F/F, Friendship, Giant Squid - Freeform, Jules Verne - Freeform, Ocean, Yuletide, Yuletide 2011, artifact, post-season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 19:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jules Verne, a giant squid, and a boat in the middle of the ocean. Just another day for Warehouse 13.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the pretty white ships that I am dreaming of

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aces](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces/gifts).



> Spoilers for the end of Season 3. Title stolen from Jonathan Coulton's I Crush Everything.

"Shit!” Pete yells as he ducks under the writhing tentacles.

The giant squid is both giant and very, very angry, which does not bode well for any of them, as Myka has already bagged Jules Verne’s original version of _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea_. It fizzled and sparked purple, just as it should, but the squid hadn’t stopped. If anything, it had gotten angrier, and more determined to take them down into the sea with it.

“Perhaps it is just angry over the way it has been treated,” Helena offers from her vantage behind the deck cabin. After all, no creature liked being controlled against its will, and that's what the artifact had been doing. “Octopi and Squid are quite intelligent after all.”

“Not helping!” Pete yells again, as he rolls out of the way of a flailing tentacle.

Myka pulls out her Tesla and tries to stun the creature again, but it hadn’t worked before the artifact was neutralized and it isn’t working now either. In fact, the shot just attracts the squid’s attention.

It turns to stare at Myka with one beady eye, and before either Helena or Pete can move, snatches Verne’s book, still in the containment bag, right out of Myka’s hands.

Helena is at Myka’s side in a second, but the squid has retreated, taking the artifact with it. Myka is breathing hard and favoring her left leg, but she’s still alive and so Helena smiles at her, letting Myka see her relief.

“Well, I guess a watery grave is almost as good as the Warehouse for storing things,” Pete says with a pout. They can still see a watery outline of the squid as it swim further and deeper away, and Helena at least is grateful the thing is not coming back to finish drowning them all.

Myka lowers herself to the deck with a sigh. Helena crouches beside her, worried. There are welt marks on Myka’s leg, red and ugly, but nothing immediately dangerous.

“We should get you back to the Warehouse and have these looked at,” Helena says.

“At least it’s not broken,” Myka says with a shrug. “Could be worse.” Still, she takes Helena’s hand to hold when offered, so she must be in at least a little bit of pain.

“Uhm, guys,” Pete says, and Helena knows that things just got worse.

Pete’s standing at the transom, looking down at the back of the boat, which seems to have taken a bit of a beating

“The squid managed to take out the engine. We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon,” Pete says, and Myka and Helena groan in unison.

Myka fishes the Farnsworth out of her pocket and gets a hold of Artie. Helena hates having to be rescued, but in this case, she’d rather have the cavalry come to their rescue then spend the night on the open ocean with Myka injured and the chance that the squid could come back to finish them off.

“Did you find it?” are the first words out of Artie’s mouth.

“Yes,” Myka says.

Pete pops up behind both of them so that Artie can see him before he says, “We even bagged it. The squid stole it anyway.”

“The squid?” Claudia asks from the background. The last time they’d been in contact, there hadn’t been a squid at all, just an angry boat captain who had wanted to control all marine life in order to catch a bigger haul.

“A very angry, very giant, squid,” Myka confirms.

“Intelligent, too,” Helena offers. Artie still flinches a little when she talks, waiting for the world to end or for Myka to end up battered, bleeding or heartbroken. She’s still not one of Artie’s team yet, not even after she saved them all. She hadn’t meant to take so long to recorporalize after the explosion, and she can’t help that they held a memorial service for her. Still, she thinks even Artie is a little bit happy that she is still alive.

“So, there is a giant squid roaming the bottom of the ocean with Jules Verne’s original _Twenty thousands Leagues Under the Sea_? I think I like the irony of it all,” Claudia says, and then laughs when Artie glares at her.

“I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye out for marine animal attacks. I don’t think we have the resources to chase down a giant squid at the moment,” Artie says. “You guys should head back in now.”

“Yeah, about that,” Pete says, looking a little sheepish. “The squid sort of took the engine with it. We’re stuck.”

“And Myka is hurt,” Helena adds, even though she’s the one being glared at now. Myka would’ve happily concealed the injury, Helena knows, but she also knows that the information will have them off this boat as soon as possible. Artie is just angry that Myka’s been hurt again.

“Hurt?” Artie squints at Myka, trying to access her injuries through the tiny Farnsworth screen.

“It’s nothing,” Myka says. “Just a little tentacle burn on my leg. I didn’t dodge fast enough.”

“I’m going to call in a favor or two, and there will be a rescue helicopter there in less than an hour,” Artie says. “Can you hang in that long, Myka? I would come myself, but it would take even longer.”

“I’m fine,” Myka says again. “And Artie, you hate helicopters almost as much as you hate boats. The Coast Guard will be just fine.”

Artie grumbles, but it’s true, he gets motion sickness from Claudia’s CD of wave sounds, let alone the actual ocean. He lets Claudia take the Farnsworth, and goes to arrange the fastest rescue he can. He knows just the favor to call in.

“So,” Claudia says, having clearly decided it’s her job to distract Myka from whatever pain she might be in, “you almost got eaten by a giant squid. It’ll make for a pretty good story over dinner at the very least. How does calamari sound?”

“It sounds perfect, Claudia,” Myka says, smiling. She squeezes Helena’s hand, and Helena smiles, too. Maybe the third chance is the charm, after all.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] The Pretty White Ships I am Dreaming Of](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3552467) by [dapatty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dapatty/pseuds/dapatty)




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